“Those F---ers who assassinated my Dreams”

A Rant on the State of Gaming

By: Chained Fei

I remember a time in my life when the revolution of video games meant something. It seems during the golden time of my childhood that there were games which had a sort of soul, a kind of spirit to them.

The first game I can firmly recall every having PLAYED on a computer would have to be King’s Quest. I would visit the library at every opportunity in order to play it, there wasn’t much to the game itself but it abounded with puzzles and thought provoking situations. It was the era of the green pixilated screen, at a time when Atari and Intellivision were household names. It was before the Nintendo and the boom that would become the Mario brothers.

I remember the local roller skating rink, where not only could you play fun games and win cool prizes (Such as a free soda at the concession stand), there was also the arcade machines. The era of the Arcade is in the decline, thousands of arcades across the country now visited only by the bored and nostalgic. There was a feel to arcades, and in the eighties and early nineties a culture grew up around them, and it is sad to see them in such a state, but it seems that all things must succumb to entropy.

I grew up in a fairly middle class household; my family received their first computer at the end of the eighties. It was a Tandy 1000, and prior to Windows there was no real intuitive design for the PC world. That Christmas I received a game I would never forget; the game was called, “Hero’s Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero?” it combined an action oriented combat mode with the puzzle solving skills of King’s Quest while also adding a statistics based character development.

I also recall not too soon after that the title had to be adjusted to, “Quest for Glory,” due to a board games reservation of the, “Hero’s Quest,” title.

I was in love with Sierra and the quirky sense of humor that Yosemite Entertainment (Who made all the branches of “Quest” style games) seemed to inject all their titles with. There was a richness of personality and feel to all of their games. Was it merely because I was a child that I enjoyed these games? No. As an adult I have revisited those games of my early childhood with little to no abandon, and have felt the same sense of joy and excitement as I played through them.

Sierra was my first, and while I had never been formally introduced to Origin and their particular flavor of games, I quickly fell in love with, “Ultima 6: The False Prophet,” and followed Origin avidly. They had created games like the Wing Commander series, the delightful Crusader titles, as well as System Shock. To anyone who has played these games, I need not espouse as to the quality and technical expertise that came forth from them. Especially the Wing Commander and Ultima series, two franchises which carried a continuous storyline and familiar characters which the gaming community loved and cherished.

How can I say such about these? I cannot speak for the Wing Commander Audience, as I was never too familiar with the overall genre… but I can say that the Internet Chapter of Ultima Dragons were some of the most dedicated and loyal followers of any game I have ever found. They were also some of the people who felt the most betrayed in the later decline of Origin Systems into the miasma that has become EA.

There were other games that touched on my youth, the Gold Box Edition of all TSR games provided a unique sense of adventure as you played out a story however you wanted. There was also Dynamix, and an unforgettable title named “Betrayal at Krondor,” which drew directly from the literary world of Raymond E. Feist. Both provided a sense of freedom and a feeling of exploration.

Unto my tween years came a small band of programmers by the name of, “Black Isle Entertainment,” who dropped a game on me which had the forceful personality and unique quirkiness that easily overcame my dislike for some of the game mechanics. How can you not love such an upbeat post-apocalyptic scenario? So dark yet so light of heart. Hardcore fans of Black Isle will tell you that these people had no wanting for inspiration or expressiveness. Many of their games have become classics to our generation, and will live on in our own personal halls of fame nigh into eternity.

Outside of computers, another Revolution was happening… with Nintendo and Sega in a neck to neck race to fill every home with a new form of entertainment system; the console. Around the same time, Arcades became social places as Mortal Kombat and other fighting games began to take the forefront. I even recall the silly Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat’s blood, and the controversy over imaginary gore.

You had your roleplaying games (Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Phantasy Star), your fighting games (River City Ransom, Double Dragon, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter), your puzzle games (Tetris), your racing games (F-Zero), your adventure games (Shadowgate, Déjà vu, Uninvited), your side scrollers (Megaman, Contra, Strider, Gradius), and your various sports games.

I’ve had a wide run of things, been to many genres and also missed out on a few. I have looked at the dawn of the online game with hope and despair, and I have watched the market always for that little something extra that slips through the cracks.

Something is happening to our childhood gold. Maybe it is merely leaving its own childhood, but I would insist on a more sinister notion. Oh, certainly some of you readers could say that it is merely some sense of nostalgia, and that certainly many of the games I grew up with were never truly that good. Perhaps it was only how I remembered it, you would say.

My response would be that I have played them again, in very recent years, and have held them up to the comparison with staunch logic and examination. I have found that true quality in a game is fading from the corporate world. Oh, certainly there is always going to be the exception to the rule, that game that blows people away with its innovation and thoughtfulness, but must it be so necessary to build of the corpses of so many fondly remembered dreams?

Need our providers carve favored flesh from the games of yore in order to craft a new monstrosity that truly has no sense of self? Still more would say that it is hard to provide anything new under the sun, that there is little new in the movie industry for example. I call foul.

I cite Peter Jackson as my example. Hell, even Quentin Tarantino. It is not that you try and escape some sort of classification, it is that you improve it in some way. You do it better than anyone else, you put so much into it that the sheer feeling and effort ooze out into the audience and infect them with your enthusiasm and care. It is, ultimately, the LITTLE things that count.

What has happened to games? What has happened to the INDUSTRY? Some would say nothing, that I merely imagine it because I have grown too old to appreciate games anymore. Maybe you’re right, but I certainly don’t feel less appreciative of my dreams and hopes. I certainly do not feel less inclined to love a game that has love written all over it.

As an artist myself, I can tell you that to create is to give birth, and it is to love what you make. People who have no love but only technical inclination are dead inside. You can certainly learn a thing, but there are some things that cannot be taught.

Black Isle, having been overhauled by Interplay, has probably lost its creative flare with the people who birthed the company to begin with. Electronic Arts itself has ruthlessly assassinated many of the companies which cared only about making great games. Of course, they call it Acquiring. Origin is dead because of them, merely reduced to a label so that they might pump out a couple more games if they are needy for the Christmas season.

Sierra? Well, Yosemite died an atrocious death one year when Sierra found disappointment with “King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity,” because, after all, one failure certainly warrants such an execution of creativity. I cannot recall ANY games under the Dynamix label in the last five years, which provides Sierra yet another mark of responsibility in the demise of a good company.

What do we have to look forward to, lately? There certainly have been many games coming out, but I would argue that there is absolutely no soul in them. Worse yet, the plague of senselessness seems to be infesting the console world as well.

Soulless, mindless games are becoming legion while the true gems are at times fading into unnatural obscurity. Corporate suits pinch the asses of the producers and turn games into masturbatory fun-fests whose soul reason for being is to squeeze that last quarter out of your pocket for a couple hours of the jollies.

Worse yet, the entire range of genres have progressively been experiencing a stupification in order to present a more accessible and approachable game to the populace as a whole. With a child on the way, I disdain both television and the disgusting spew of conglomerate entertainment that the video game world is becoming.

Is this tirade somehow related to the raping of our childhood? You could say yes, I do feel like our childhood is being raped. But that isn’t it. I feel like our entire future is being raped. I feel that when Art becomes Industry, it becomes drivel… is industrialization necessary in the gaming world?

Economically, you could say yes. You could say that as more and more people, inspired by the first generation of games, joined into the creation that competition began to play a part. Competition in and of itself is certainly a good thing, isn’t it?

Until it becomes about the money. Yes, money is nice… but when money becomes the aim, you lose what soul your art has. When you do something simply to get paid, you lose what it means to create. Creation is for creation’s sake, and no other. Creation is meant to be enjoyed, you wish others to find joy in what you do because it makes you feel good to be appreciated. We all want to be appreciated… except for those who only want money.

There are certainly many in the world that feel that they can buy happiness, and who obsess over such details. These people are the ones that pull the plug when they start feeling the pinch that investing in something causes. There is no sure investment, but a good investment depends on if you are faithful to it.

Faithless people who care only about the bottom line are the reason why our childhood is being murdered. It certainly is easy to say that you cannot blame them, it is after all only business.

But…

When did it start becoming all about business? To those who have read this far, I ask this… tell me your own personal stories. Are you part of the gaming world? Have you been laid off? Did you once believe in something, but now you have nothing but apathy for the game market? Heck, do you happen to be a person who CREATED?

Send me your stories… chainedfei@uymail.com